Bradford Bulls: Whitehead in 'straight swap' for Bateman against Castleford (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

At least Mr Potter has offered some explanation regarding Kyle Briggs, still think he should have been given a run out and a chance to prove himself before being off loaded to Fev !

I hope they dont Play Purtell in the centre he has shown he isnt a centre. We badly need Lulia for his strike power out wide as Walker isnt doing much. Move walker to the pack, and play him & Whithead with Donaldson at 13 with the 4 props being Burgess, Joseph, Langley & young McAvoy. He did well in pre season and has done better that Scruton & Hargreves. Sibbit & Lestrange on the bench.

birkybull wrote:
I hope they dont Play Purtell in the centre he has shown he isnt a centre. We badly need Lulia for his strike power out wide as Walker isnt doing much. Move walker to the pack, and play him & Whithead with Donaldson at 13 with the 4 props being Burgess, Joseph, Langley & young McAvoy. He did well in pre season and has done better that Scruton & Hargreves. Sibbit & Lestrange on the bench.

No Kopzcak? Or Elima? Sorry fella, I usually agree with giving the youth a chance, but those four props are silly.

Langers had a good game last week playing out wider than in previous seasons. Has tackling work rate was excellent and he scored a well derved try - and should have had one at the other end too in first half.

Not sure how Disko got MOM either!!

Joseph to start for me, and no Sibbitt please. More game time for Koppy to lead the pack.

I agree schoey 2 I rememer thinking at the game who voted for the MOM, I thought Sammut should of got it.

And if purtell is moved onto the wing and Walker is moved into the pack are we going for Pyrce and Lulia in the centres? I think they'd be a great pair, especially with Kear and Ainscough on the wings

Schoey 2 wrote:
Langers had a good game last week playing out wider than in previous seasons. Has tackling work rate was excellent and he scored a well derved try - and should have had one at the other end too in first half. Not sure how Disko got MOM either!! Joseph to start for me, and no Sibbitt please. More game time for Koppy to lead the pack.

Are you drunk,langley had a good game...he was aweful

Mickbull4eva wrote:

Schoey 2 wrote:
Langers had a good game last week playing out wider than in previous seasons. Has tackling work rate was excellent and he scored a well derved try - and should have had one at the other end too in first half. Not sure how Disko got MOM either!! Joseph to start for me, and no Sibbitt please. More game time for Koppy to lead the pack.

Are you drunk,langley had a good game...he was aweful

Agreed! Langley was more of a liability against Catalan, as was Diskin which is why his MOM didn't make sense? If anything Sammut deserved it for some excellent attack, great footwork, and a "Try" that was wrongfully disallowed.
I would be tempted to agree with calls to move Walker to the pack and Whitehead to the Centres tho. Walker is a better backrower and Whitehead will add some much needed "experience" in the pack. I'd have been tempted to drop Sibbit and move Joseph to the backrow. Add some bulk and power to the backrow...something we appear to be lacking. Donaldson is a worker but is still pretty small and Sibbit is the same. Langley has size but rarely uses it and I think Big Phil running out wide might cause a few probs for Cas!

Sending Briggs back to Fev shows what a bad decision it was by Potter to sign him in the first place. He was supposed to be the answer to our stand off problems when he was signed and Potter proudly put him straight into the side against Leeds.
I am so disappointed with Potters judgement on so many of his signings. It did appear we had signed a good coach when he came but we now see he is no better than the dismal soul he replaced. The likes of Sibbet, Ainscough and Walker have only served to highlight Potters poor judgement. Recently someone on here pointed to Potters 'success' as a coach at Catalans and on paper that was true but when you realise he had absolutely no salary cap restrictions with that club it becomes clear that it was his army of Aussie mates that bailed him out. His time at Saints saw a gradual downward spiral in performances and resulted in him not being retained. Surely it's time to accept that if we are to progress at all it will have to be with another coach having made the wrong choice. We simply can't afford to carry on with one calamity after another as is the case with this guy.

murphyslaw wrote:
Sending Briggs back to Fev shows what a bad decision it was by Potter to sign him in the first place. He was supposed to be the answer to our stand off problems when he was signed and Potter proudly put him straight into the side against Leeds.
I am so disappointed with Potters judgement on so many of his signings. It did appear we had signed a good coach when he came but we now see he is no better than the dismal soul he replaced. The likes of Sibbet, Ainscough and Walker have only served to highlight Potters poor judgement. Recently someone on here pointed to Potters 'success' as a coach at Catalans and on paper that was true but when you realise he had absolutely no salary cap restrictions with that club it becomes clear that it was his army of Aussie mates that bailed him out. His time at Saints saw a gradual downward spiral in performances and resulted in him not being retained. Surely it's time to accept that if we are to progress at all it will have to be with another coach having made the wrong choice. We simply can't afford to carry on with one calamity after another as is the case with this guy.

I too, and suspect many others, are disappointed with MPs first season. I do believe that a lot of which has transpired has as much to do with a few years of decline rather than any individuals inability to turn things around positively in a short period of time. Will Potter turn things around this term?, well, time will tell but I do feel we need to see at least half a dozen matches to make any fair judgement.
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I think it was myself that made the comments you referred to about Potter's time at Catalans. I have to say that I feel it's somewhat disingenuous of you to site an 'uneven playing' - surely that could be said of a number of teams - Wire, Wigan and HKR immediately spring to mind.
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Whatever we may feel about our current plight one thing is certain, we have to 'play' the hand we have chosen. Results aside, If we continue to perform without Pride Determination and Commitment, then I can assure you that I too will be calling for a change in our regime.

In my view Ben Jeffries has not exactly covered himself in glory and should be behind Kyle Briggs. I suspect, from reading a different post, that the unrest in the dresssing room has a lot to do with it. Also I find it hard to understand Potters team selections at times. His selected teams did a poor job last season and have started in the same vein this term. Watch out for a convicing win by Cas followed by a mauling against Wigan. It hurts to say that, by the way.

Far Away wrote:
In my view Ben Jeffries has not exactly covered himself in glory and should be behind Kyle Briggs. I suspect, from reading a different post, that the unrest in the dresssing room has a lot to do with it. Also I find it hard to understand Potters team selections at times. His selected teams did a poor job last season and have started in the same vein this term. Watch out for a convicing win by Cas followed by a mauling against Wigan. It hurts to say that, by the way.

Ben Jeffries played ok back end of last year in fact he IMO was one of our better players, which speaks volumes about the rest of them!
When I look back at last year and ask myself are we in any better position, I've got to answer NO. After the Leeds game last year I really did feel we were on the right track, but after watching Sundays game, well I'm afraid to say as it stands now our season looks bleak.

I'm not sure that I really believe what Potter has said about Briggs, or perhaps he is not telling the full story.
I could understand it if we were half a dozen games into the season and the Gale, Zammut combination was working well. The decision appeared to be made before the season started and the half backs were not exactly an overwhelming success against the Catalans although there were promising signs.
Given the Bulls luck in previous seasons we are bound to get injuries in the half backs at some time which only leaves Jeffries as cover. I've said before that it can't be too long before Sykes and Le Strange are playing in the halves.

Potter did say he thought Briggs had a future inS/L.
what he didn't say was that future was with bulls whilst potter is in charge.
Don't know if it was potters decision to sign briggs, but i suspect potter doesn't rate him andi think the lad has had a raw deal at odsal.
Fairest way would be to give the lad a free transfer and let him find a new deal elsewhere. that way he'll find out if he's rated by others in S/L or not.

Are yes, apolgies. My props for the cas game would be, Joseph, Burgess, Kopjack & Langley to start. I would drop Scruton and Hargreves altogether till they bucked their ideas up, started running hard and hitting hard. I would def keep Sibbit on the bench though as he tackles his ba11s off. and does a lot of the donkey work that goes unnoticed. Lulia and Kear on onw wing, and Walker & Purtell on the other.
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1, Kearney, 2 Kear, 3 Lulia, 4 walker, 5 Crookes/Ainscough, 6 Gale, 7 Jeffries/Sammut, 8 Langley, 9 Lestrange, 10 Kopjack, 11, Whitehead, 12 Sibbit,
13, Donaldson.. Bench of Joseph, Burgess, Sammut/jeffries, Diskin

murphyslaw wrote:
Sending Briggs back to Fev shows what a bad decision it was by Potter to sign him in the first place. He was supposed to be the answer to our stand off problems when he was signed and Potter proudly put him straight into the side against Leeds.
I am so disappointed with Potters judgement on so many of his signings. It did appear we had signed a good coach when he came but we now see he is no better than the dismal soul he replaced. The likes of Sibbet, Ainscough and Walker have only served to highlight Potters poor judgement. Recently someone on here pointed to Potters 'success' as a coach at Catalans and on paper that was true but when you realise he had absolutely no salary cap restrictions with that club it becomes clear that it was his army of Aussie mates that bailed him out. His time at Saints saw a gradual downward spiral in performances and resulted in him not being retained. Surely it's time to accept that if we are to progress at all it will have to be with another coach having made the wrong choice. We simply can't afford to carry on with one calamity after another as is the case with this guy.

And lets not forget he announcer pretty much at the start of his final season at saints that he wanted to return down under at the end of that season to take up a coaching role in the NRL

Surprisingly he got no offers no surprise then that he washed up at Bradford

birkybull wrote:
Are yes, apolgies. My props for the cas game would be, Joseph, Burgess, Kopjack & Langley to start. I would drop Scruton and Hargreves altogether till they bucked their ideas up, started running hard and hitting hard. I would def keep Sibbit on the bench though as he tackles his ba11s off. and does a lot of the donkey work that goes unnoticed. Lulia and Kear on onw wing, and Walker & Purtell on the other.
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1, Kearney, 2 Kear, 3 Lulia, 4 walker, 5 Crookes/Ainscough, 6 Gale, 7 Jeffries/Sammut, 8 Langley, 9 Lestrange, 10 Kopjack, 11, Whitehead, 12 Sibbit,
13, Donaldson.. Bench of Joseph, Burgess, Sammut/jeffries, Diskin

U mean drop burgess, he is overweight and desperately unfit. We can't afford to give game time to a player who struggles to do a 15 min stint. Drop him into the reserves and maybe he may lay off eating the pies!

It's all about the size of your pack. So I'd go with:

1.Kearney
2.Crookes
3.Whitehead
4.Purtell
5.Kear
6.Sammut
7.Gale
8.Scruton
9.Diskin
10.Kopczak
11.Walker
12.Joseph
13.Langley
Subs
L'estrange
Donaldson
Burgess
Hargreaves

Such a shame to see that Lulia and Pryce may not make it. My team would be:

Kearney
Ainscough
Purtell
Whitehead (Lulia if fit - would still have Whitehead in at SR though)
Kear
Sammut
Gale
Scruton
L'Estrange
Kopczak
Langley
Sibbit
Donaldson

Bench:
Diskin
Joseph
Burgess
Addy

Ainscough is better than Crookes.
We need our injured players back fast as our forwards aren't good enough without Manuokafoa and Elima and our centres and wings aren't strong enough without Lulia and Pryce.

I know Purtell is better on the wing but when Lulia returns maybe Potter will play Lulia in centre with Purtell on the wing?